The End
by Alsike
Summary: Set in my own Silver Millenium which I will write eventually this story is when the Senshi find their princess after she's committed suicide, overly melodramatic. Pairings Rei/Minako Makoto/Usagi


"Oh god…" Venus gasped when they saw the bodies sprawled on the ground.

"Jupiter!" Mars called out, "Are you here, are you…" Okay was a stupid question.

Jupiter stepped out from behind the wall. She carried a bloody sword.

Mars matched the bloody sword to the wounds in her chest, his back. "Y-You…"

She couldn't say any more, she couldn't believe anything more. Jupiter shook her head, "suicide. I pulled it out of her." She said it coldly; she was dead inside. "The enemy's been here; they killed _him."_ She spat the word with disgust. It wasn't abnormal; she had always referred to him like that.

_"**He's**__ here again."_

_ Mars glanced at her from her mirror and smiled, "Come on, don't be so angry, he's not going to hurt her."_

_ "Yes he is, I know he is."_

_ "Take it easy, Jupiter, she loves you, you know that."_

_ "No I don't. All I hear is his name. 'I love him, I'm gonna marry him.'"_

_ "Well she's not going to marry you." There was silence. "Jup, stop lying to yourself."_

_ "Have you stopped?"_

_ Mars turned to her, "what do you mean?"_

_ "Do you think she's going to be yours forever? Yes? **You**__ come on, she's the only princess of Venus, and her father's a merchant, do you think she's not going to be bartered for or sold?"_

_ "She's strong, she wouldn't let him…"_

_ "What makes you think she wont want it?"_

_ "But…"_

_ "You're lying to yourself, Mars, you're just a little distraction along the way. Take it from me. I know."_

_ "This is coming from the girl whose girlfriend has the attention span of a goldfish."_

_ "I know I'm unimportant, but why him. I don't know why, but I hate him, I hate him so much…" Mars would have seen her knuckles turn white if it wasn't for the elbow-length gloves._

_ "Tell you the truth, I feel something strange about it too. It's not him, it's something surrounding them."_

Well, Mars guessed she had spotted it. It's too bad she couldn't do anything about it.

"What do we do now?" asked Mercury.

Venus knelt by the body of their princess. "We have to tell the Queen somehow…"

Mars rested a hand on her shoulder.

"The enemy will be back," said Jupiter flatly, "we should bring the bodies back to the moon."

"You're right." Venus stood up, brushing Mars's hand off her shoulder. She turned towards the archway, and Mars froze. It was hearing and vision, the sound of a bowstring being pulled taut, and a flash forward: an arrow piercing that golden waterfall, the stumble forward, the helplessness. She wasn't helpless now; she heard the ruffle of feathers and dived forward. She felt the pain with contentment. Maybe it burned as it tore though her back, but it wasn't the relentless torture of futility inside.

"Ugh," Venus hit the ground, "Mars?" She glanced back to the weight on top of her, to the eyes that had never burned as darkly as this.

"And you say I have no timing, leader." She grinned and tried to stand, falling to one knee and trying to breathe.

"Run!" yelled Jupiter. Mercury turned to the body of her princess, "Leave them, corpses have no worth!"

Venus couldn't move, she couldn't hear, she couldn't see anything but the feathered quarrel; her sense of smell was unusually strong though. She could smell the cherry blossoms from the tree above her dead princess, and she could smell blood, like she had never smelt it before.

Jupiter shoved the handle of the sword into Venus's hand. She lifted Mars and ran through the arch, Mercury on her heels. Venus stared at her sword, red with her princess's blood. From behind the wall came a scream, and Venus hurried over. Another arrow skimmed off the wall next to her.

Mars was flat on her stomach, her back gushing blood that bubbled whenever she took a breath. Jupiter was inspecting the blood dipped tip of the arrow. Mercury knelt over Mars, looking at the wound. She glanced up at Venus, "it doesn't look good. It went into her lung."

She started bandaging it. Venus fell to her knees. She could hear the soldiers start to make their way over the wall. She threw the sword to the ground. She was no leader; she had failed; everything was over.

Jupiter picked up the sword. "I'll hold them off." She charged out of the archway. The grief was released in anger, and the few soldiers were no match for her bloodlust. She sliced through the first soldier's throat and gloated in the burn of hot blood spraying across her skin.

Mercury helped Mars to roll onto her back, and stood up. She nodded to Venus and walked to the archway, kneeling and taking out her laser-ray gun.

"Venus," it was barely a whisper. The said girl crawled to her lover's side. "I always wanted to die in battle, but I can barely breathe it hurts so much."

"You're not going to die."

Mars laughed and coughed up blood. "And Jupiter said _I_ lied to myself." She wiped her mouth on the white glove of her sailor fuku, "I hate these stupid outfits. If I had my proper armor…" Mars started crying, alternating sobs with hacking up blood.

The enemy was regrouping on the other side of the wall. The last invader had fallen, smoking from Mercury's laser.

Jupiter knelt among the bodies, sliding one hand up the keen edge of the blade. Her battlelust had faded, but she wasn't ready to cry, she couldn't cry.

"You're right." The keeper of the gates of time stood by her. "She failed, but it isn't over yet, it isn't nearly over yet." Pluto faded out.

Jupiter stood up, anger burning in her green eyes. She stepped through the archway, just as Mercury asked Venus what she should do. Venus held a sobbing Mars in her lap, ignoring the blood being coughed onto her white and orange uniform.

"Send a message to the queen, tell her our predicament, tell her… about her daughter. I… we can't tell her why."

"I know why." Jupiter cleaned the sword on her skirt. She looked up; the fire in her eyes was insane. "She was weak. She always was. Never knowing what she wanted. She was useless. Look at her! She deserted her duty for romanticism, and she tricked us into failing in our duty." She looked down at Mars. "At least you are dying honorably, for your leader." She bowed down to Venus. "You are our leader, tell us how to die."

"I'm no one's leader, I failed." She bent her head, resting her forehead against Mars's black bangs.

"If you give up we all fail," Mars murmured to her. "If you give up… I wish I had my armor here. If I had my armor I'd… I'd give it to you. I'd do anything to keep you safe, but what can I do? We're all going to die. I'm the second, but I won't be the last. We're not getting off Earth alive, none of us. Our princess is dead, for whatever reasons, and we no longer have a purpose. We'll all die here, but it's not the end. Maybe she'll be stronger next time," she looked at Jupiter, "maybe she'll love you more, or maybe we'll just have to try harder to protect her, even if it's from herself." Mars fought the desire to cough as blood bubbled up her throat. Her eyes were tearing up again, "Venus," she buried her face in the now bloodstained sailor fuku, "Venus, I wish I could fight. I just want to fight to the last with you, and I'm sorry I challenged you for the leadership; you're the best leader. I'd follow you anywhere. You can't give up, even if it's hopeless, and it is. Lead them into battle, and follow me into death. I love you, my leader, I lo…" she coughed up more blood, "go! Leave me to die here, go fight. Do what you're best at, lead them into battle, and kill a bunch of them for me." She grinned up at Venus and pushed herself off her lap, curling into a ball.

Venus stood, then doubled over, trying to control her retching. But then she straightened up, knowing she had no choice, knowing there was no escape. There was no point to escape. There was no reason to live any longer. She took the Imperium Crystal sword from Jupiter and raised it above her head.

"We have nothing left to fight for. We don't have enough power to make a dent in their forces, much less stop them from destroying the Silver Millennium. We're going to die today," she laughed hysterically, glancing down at the hemorrhaging body of her lover, "so lets go kill a bunch of people before we do it!"

Jupiter and Mercury stared at her. She began marching towards the archway. Jupiter grinned, her madness returning, lightning spread between her hands. She grasped it and it solidified into a lightning-jagged spear. She tapped Mars with the butt of it. "I'll kill some for you too." Then she followed Venus.

Mercury opened her computer and typed a message. Then she checked the clip on her laser-ray gun and nodded. She hid the computer behind a rock and clicked the safety off her gun. She took position at the archway.

Pluto appeared beside Mars. A little black-haired girl popped into existence. She looked down at Mars and grimaced; then she glanced up at the gatekeeper.

"Do I get to use my Silence Glaive yet?" Pluto shook her head. She reached down and lifted Mars's soul out of her body.

"You can see it all now, now you're free of mortality." Pluto addressed Mars. Her soul nodded, and then smiled widely.

"She's awful!" She turned to the gatekeeper, "but at least she can stand up for herself. I'll make sure she keeps standing up for herself… and, everything will be all right, wont it?"

"Eventually."

The battle swirled past Venus's peripheral vision like a flood of gray and blood red. On her right she saw Jupiter, defending the cherry tree. She didn't waste time to shake her head, fending off three attackers, who were slowly driving her backwards, but that was Jupiter, no matter what she said she would defend her princess even after death. She saw Jupiter miss a block with her spear and take a thrust to the gut. She fell to one knee and kept fighting until one more slash took her down.

Mercury had run out of charges, and the tide of battle pushed Venus back through the archway. Mercury lay crumpled to the side, glasses smashed, her once immaculate fuku drenched in red and purple. Mars's body laid to the left, as good a fortification as any. Venus jumped over the curled up corpse and took a defensive position behind it.

She fended off sword cuts and spear thrusts, but she didn't have Mars to watch her back. One blow pierced her through and took her down. She fell across Mars's body. Resting her head against her former lover's still chest, she waited to die. "I know you said that you knew, and I didn't have to tell you, but still, I love you…

…Rei."

Minako woke up suddenly, her body soaked in sweat and her best friend's name on her lips. She climbed out of bed, stumbled to the bathroom, and, falling to her knees by the toilet, vomited everything she hadn't digested until bile burned up through her throat.


End file.
